London Day 3

Fleet Street Scene
Today we had another wonderful lazy day.  Around noon, we headed out to do some food shopping for Lizzie.  We left the flat and walked to the nearest shopping center.  We stopped in a pastry shop and switched up our morning tea for coffee and yummy chocolate croissants.  After going to the grocery store, we dropped off the bags and headed back to the bicycle rack.

An ruined arch
of the London wall
 We rode down fleet streets and through lots of narrow alleys.  Near St Paul's, we parked the bikes and went inside.  The Cathedral was technically closed but being Sunday the evening services were underway.  Sitting in a pew, we listened to the organ music echo throughout the nave.  So much incense was used during the service that it was almost impossible to actually see the priest.

Next we walked over to the Barbican to the see the old ruins of the London wall.  The wall while already old, was almost completely destroyed by the bombs dropped on the city during world war 2.  The surviving pieces are located throughout the Barbican and the surrounding complex. 

View of the Shard


Tower Bridge
Walking back to the flat we came across another rack of bikes.  Not ready to end the day we rented two more and rode across the river Thames.  On the way back across, we rode along  tower bridge.  Normally, the bridge is packed with tourists but as it was evening it was pretty empty.  From the bridge we could see a clear shot of St Paul's and just in front the Shard.  At the north end of the bridge we passed the Tower of London as we started our ride back to the flat.
The Tower of London
 
mmmm already craving one

Along the way we realized we had not had anything to eat.  Passing a pancake restaurant we stopped to look at the menu.  As we were debating if pancakes were really a good dinner option, a man came tumbling out the door with a huge grin.  "It's brilliant!" he said "See?", as he patted his round belly. Ok now we had to try this place.  These turned out to be not only really good, but perhaps the largest pancakes we will ever eat!  

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lickety Split

Image
The hotel beach  Erika and Tom  We woke up ready to hit the beach only to find that it was pouring rain.  With our plans derailed for the day, we decided to take it easy and lounge around until the rain cleared. This turned out to be a good part of the day.  In the late afternoon, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for a drink.   We found the same waiter from the previous night and ordered a couple of glasses of wine.  No problem. When Luis’s arrived it had some cork or other strange floaty bits.  Noticing this, the waiter became concerned.  He leaned in close to Luis and examined the glass, practically sticking his nose into it. “No Problem” he said grabbing the glass and returning with a new one.  This guy was really funny without intending to be.   One of the palace entrances Statue of Gregory of Nin Around 4:00 pm, the rain finally stopped and we all decided to drive into Split and do a little sightseeing.   Split is t...
Read more

Mission impossible was possible

Image
London Eye along the Thames Woke up this morning early, ready to go to London. A brief stop before the next leg of our trip - Budapest. Our stuff was packed and after a quick shower and breakfast, We drove to Kingston to run a few quick errands. We got back to Granny's house at about half ten. We said a quick farewell to her, walked to the end of the street and boarded the 285 bus. Arriving at Hatton Cross we caught the Picadiliy line to London. We arrived at Russell square a little after noon. Made our way to William and Ralph's flat. Ralph was home to greet us, let us drop off our bags, and give us a key to his and Elizabeth's flat. The missing "eye" After arriving we briefly took a break and had some tea before wandering through the city. We figured we would head south towards the river and see where we ended up from there. Once there we took a couple of pictures of the London eye. A few weeks back When driving to Nottingham, we had noticed...
Read more

Great Scott this is beautiful

Image
The Artic Penguin Last night at the Stagecoach Inn at Cairndow we heard voices. The first was a woman laughing in the middle of the night; the other was unidentifiable, perhaps a man whispering. The walls of the hotel were really thick and we couldn ’t hear any other guests, even if they were right outside our door. Perhaps these were ghosts of travelers past. The building was once an old coaching inn and would have been a waypoint for the carriages as they traversed the highlands. Stepping out of the cold, damp air into the hotel feels as if you are transported back in time. Describing the inn as old and quirky is an understatement. The rooms are an explosion of mismatched prints and the floors slope to such a degree one could almost ski from the bathtub to the sink. However, the atmosphere was perfect. It was warm, cozy and we had one of the best night’s sleep of our trip. From our room we could lookout at the misty grey Loch Fynne . As this tiny “town” along the edge of t...
Read more